Saving Each Other
by Remy J Lupin
Summary: It's ten years after the Second Wizarding War ended, and Hermione Granger still struggles everyday to get by. After getting a job in the Department of Mysteries, she begins working to improve time travel to change her biggest mistake. Not typical time turner fic. No Marauder time period, no young Marauders. EWE.
1. Prologue: Haunted & Obsessed

A/N: Hey everybody! I just wanted to add in this author's note. First, I do not own Harry Potter. Second, I have been kicking this idea around in my head for a while. I've seen A LOT of fanfictions that focus on time travel back to the Marauders time, and I wanted to change things up a bit. This is something completely different, but it still involves time travel.

I'm attempting to keep things as canon as possible. I used a lot of J.K. Rowling's information on time travel (via Pottermore) to attempt to make a story that is completely plausible in the world she has created. That being said, I'm trying to remain canon to the books and official J.K. information – not the movies. There are a few variations here and there. For instance, I disregarded the epilogue. Mostly, I tried to write in my own ideas so they would function as _**possible**_ events within the original text. For example, Hermione might do something that was never mentioned in the books, but it is because the story did not follow Hermione in that specific moment.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy my story. I thought it would be an interesting challenge (and it is definitely challenging!). Lastly, please read & review. I love reviews. They make me smile and give me a lot of much needed feedback. Enjoy! :)

Prologue: Haunted & Obsessed

The war was over. Their side had won. Voldemort was gone. Not for now, but forever. This was not a break from the constant battle that had lasted over twenty years, but a conclusion. Then why did Hermione Granger, after so many years, still not find any solace? Why did she find herself regretting, even hating, the finality of it all? It had been ten years since the final battle, and she still felt like she was trapped in time within a single moment during the fight. She could not move past it, and this moment clung to her relentlessly. Every day was a struggle against her inability to let the past be the past.

After returning for her seventh year at Hogwarts, Hermione, with her exceptional grades, unmatched intelligence, and unwanted fame, headed out into the world to begin a career. She immediately put forth all of her efforts into becoming an Unspeakable. She was accepted into the Department of Mysteries almost instantly; she did not even have to turn in a resume before she was fitted for a uniform.

Everyone was excited their brilliant Hermione Granger had gotten a job so fitting for her level of ability and intelligence. "This is a job where you can really shine," they said. "Nothing would be more fitting for 'the cleverest witch of your age!'" they exclaimed proudly. Hermione inwardly cringed at this remark.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Hermione began to work in the Time Room. She spent years rebuilding Time-Turners and improving on the concept over the years. Until Hermione joined the Time-Magic research team, all research on traveling more than five hours through time had been banned completely. The last Unspeakable who attempted such a feat was Eloise Mintumble in 1899. On her return from 1402, Eloise aged nearly five centuries and died shortly after. Even worse, her time travel erased over two dozen people from existence and caused a time disruptions in 1899.

Hermione, through years of work, discovered a way to prevent time travelers from aging on their return. She modified the _protego totalum_ spell to enclose the traveler in a protective bubble that shielded them as they passed through time. The idea was that everything within the bubble was enclosed in its own separate plane of time – completely independent from the past, present, and future. This disconnect from other time planes allowed the traveler to evade any effects while passing through time. In theory.

To be sure, Hermione tested the spell multiple times by dangerously traveling backwards a week in time. To avoid paradoxes, Hermione would return immediately to her own time. To make sure that the spell worked properly, Hermione took painstaking measurements of her hair and fingernails to make sure they hadn't grown. The miniscule growth expected in a week's time did not occur. Her experiment was a success. She was one step closer to safe long trip time travel.

But this was not enough. Long trip time travel still threatened an innumerable amount of innocent bystanders. She needed a way to avoid creating a paradox in time. She could not risk destroying someone's existence or throwing her own time off-balance. She could also, very possibly, take herself out of existence. For all she knew, her own time travel could have even more horrific effects than Eloise's trip did. Even with her amazing advancements, she was right back where she had begun and nowhere closer to returning to the moment that haunted her.

This is where our story begins: with poor haunted Hermione Granger. She was approaching thirty-years-old, completely isolated and alone, throwing herself into work every day and night, and painfully obsessed with solving the biggest mistake of her life.


	2. Chapter 1: Frustration & Laughter?

Chapter 1: Frustration and Laughter?

The clock struck 6:30pm, and Hermione Granger did not even look up from her massive pile of notes spread across her desk. Quitting time was supposed to be 5:00, but Hermione usually stayed well into the night. Over the years, she had accumulated so much overtime that she stopped reporting it on her time card. Her boss told her the department couldn't afford to pay her for the extra 35 hours she worked every week, so she simply didn't tell them she worked as much as she did. Some nights, Hermione wouldn't even go home; she would sleep for a few hours at her desk, and begin all over again the next morning.

Needless to say, Hermione Granger was looking her age with constant bags under her eyes, and the bright glimmer of curiosity and thirst for knowledge had faded from them. They had even lost their vibrant mahogany tone and had diminished to a stale, old coffee color. This is not to suggest that Hermione hadn't blossomed into quite an attractive woman, but her complete disregard for her appearance and health greatly detracted from her inherent beauty. Hermione had always felt this way about her appearance, but her constant state of stress was finally taking a harsh toll on her.

Running her fingers through hair, she puffed a frustrated sigh from her lips as she read her notes on paradoxes for the thousandth time. She was looking for a loop hole, or any solution, that could give her the confidence she needed before she made any real attempts at long trip time travel. She was completely exasperated with this issue and mourned the fact that the only problem she had solved was the one she was least concerned with. Aging a decade in a few minutes didn't terrify her in the slightest. She had dedicated her life to her work and was willing to make such a sacrifice for her cause. It was the threat to others that made her stay late every night scrutinizing her notes for something she must have missed.

In sudden fit of anger, Hermione sent her notes to the floor in a flutter and groaned loudly before dropping her face onto her desk. Just then, a paper airplane crashed into her tangled mane of hair, and without lifting her head, she let out another groan, removed the memo from her hair, and crushed it in a ball. A few minutes passed before she finally sat up in her chair, flattened out the memo, and read it:

TO: HERMIONE GRANGER, DEPARTMENT OF MYSTERIES

FROM: FRONT SECURITY DESK

DATE: 26 APRIL 2018

SUBJECT: VISITERS

THERE ARE TWO MUGGLES HERE TO SEE YOU. PLEASE COME MEET THEM AT THE FRONT DESK.

Her parents. Hermione looked at the complete mess she had made, thought about how long it would take to reorganize her notes, and decided she might as well quit for the night. Gathering her notes in a huge, clumpy pile, she threw them a top her desk and headed for the lifts.

Walking across the huge main entrance, Hermione saw her parents standing at the front desk looking around the room in awe. The security guard manning the front desk looked particularly annoyed with how Muggle-like the Grangers were behaving.

"Oh, there she is, dear. Look," her mother whispered, nudging him in the ribs. "Hello, Darling!" she yelled across the room, her warm voice echoing off the marble walls.

Her father, tearing his gaze from the unbelievable crown molding, also yelled, "Hello there, Sweetheart! Working late again?!"

Hermione, in an uncommon rush of emotion, ran to her parents and wrapped her arms around them fiercely. As of late, she had a tendency to fall numb to her feelings, but this time of year was especially stressful for her. She couldn't help but engulf herself in all of the warm, homey feelings they carried with them.

After the war had ended, Hermione went to Australia to find her parents. At first she was afraid that she would not be able to restore her parents' memories, but when she found them, everything worked out fine. She restored their memories and the family had a joyous reunion. They all returned to Britain and their old family home the very next day.

"I missed you," Hermione mumbled into her mother and father's shoulders. Inwardly, Hermione rolled her eyes at her own childish behavior, but she forgave herself almost instantly. She had been acting like an adult since she was a child; she could excuse one childish moment.

"We missed you, too, Darling," her mother cooed into her hair. "That's why we decided to pop in and see if we could catch you before you left for the night. We were wondering if you'd like to come by the house for dinner."

Pulling out of their embrace, Hermione began to reject the offer: "Well, I can't really. I still have a lot of work to do."

"Oh, nonsense," said her father. "You have to come. Whatever secret business you're working on can wait until tomorrow. Plus, we even picked up some strawberry ice cream for dessert," he smiled knowingly and placed his arm around Hermione's shoulders.

"Well, in that case, how can I refuse?" she laughed playfully. The sound caught her off guard and echoed off the marble walls eerily. The noise was foreign to her ears. It suddenly hit her that she hadn't laughed in a long time. Maybe a night with her parents would do her some good.


	3. Chapter 2: The Doctor & The Reason

Chapter 2: The Doctor & The Reason

Dinner at the Granger's proved to be a good idea. They sat down to a lovely roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes and Yorkshire pudding. When dinner was finished, Hermione helped her mother clear the table and wash the dishes while her father took a seat in front of the telly. This was a routine Hermione remembered from her childhood. Her mother and her filling the sink with soapy water. One of them washing, one of them drying. The muffled sound of the telly from the other room. It all brought Hermione back to a time before the war, and it soothed her nerves for the first time in months.

Once they had finished with the dishes, they scooped large servings of strawberry ice cream into three bowls and joined Mr. Granger in the living room. They all piled onto the couch together, eating their ice cream, and watching the show Mr. Granger had tuned to.

"What show is this?" Hermione asked. It had been years since Hermione had watched a single minute of television. It just wasn't something witches and wizards did.

"Oh, you've never seen this? It's_ Doctor Who._ It's about a mad man with a time traveling police box," explained Mr. Granger before putting a spoonful of ice cream in his month.

Hermione's stomach plunged. Even hidden away in the muggle world, she couldn't seem to avoid the constant nagging of her obsession. She forced a smile and settled in to watch the show. Trying to force a positive thought, she observed that it might be interesting to see muggle theories on time travel.

The show was terribly silly and even frustrating to Hermione. The Doctor traveled through time with absolute ease. He went wherever he wanted and did whatever he wanted. He never had a strong concern for how his actions could negatively impact the future. In fact, his interference only ever brought positive change. Hermione felt all of her stress and anger boiling up inside her again. How was it fair that the Doctor could abuse and misuse time travel so freely? Meanwhile she was stuck tiptoeing through time with the upmost care.

Hermione had just tuned out of the show's plot when she heard something that struck a chord inside her:

"The paradoxes resolve themselves, by and large," the silly man with the bowtie said to the dark-haired girl matter-of-factly.

Something clicked in Hermione's head. Suddenly, everything was falling into place in her mind. She was on an unexpected train of thought that was taking her through her every step. Hermione began to smile. She felt excitement filling her chest like a balloon. Dead ends were falling away in her mind's eye, and all she saw was a wide open road to her goal.

Hermione jumped from the couch and cried out in excitement. She scared the hell out of her parents who immediately jumped up as well.

"Hermione, what's going on?" asked her mother. Mrs. Granger gripped her daughter's shoulders to discontinue her bouncing up and down.

"Mom. Dad. I'm sorry. Dinner was lovely, but I just have to go. I just had a breakthrough in the case I've been working on! I love you both," she kissed each of them swiftly on the cheek, "but I must go now."

With that, Hermione turned on the spot and disappeared before her parents' eyes. Mr. and Mrs. Granger looked at each other in confusion.

"Well, at least she stayed for dinner," her mother sighed and sat back down on the couch.

Hermione crashed through the door to her flat in a wave of excitement and ran into her home office. She threw open the notebook she kept at home for reference during her few hours away from work, and she immediately ripped the pages from it. Tossing them over her shoulder, the pages fluttered to the floor like confetti. All that was left of the notebook before her was a stack of pristine white page. She smiled to herself and immediately started scribbling ideas across the pages. She created lists of supplies, created a timeline to follow, and mapped out every step of her plan.

She roughly heaved open the bottom door of her desk and lugged out her pensieve. Pausing for a moment in her haste, she very gently lifted her wand to her temple, focused hard, and pulled away a silver, wispy memory. Softly, she placed the memory within the pensieve, poked the contents with her wand, and plunged her face into the swirling waters.

Hermione felt her body hurdle over into the memory and began to fall through darkness. When her feet hit the ground roughly, the roar of battle surrounded her. Flashes of light shot past her, and instinctively, she ducked and drew her wand. Realizing her mistake, she sighed, pocketed her wand and took in her surroundings.

She was in the first floor corridor of Hogwarts castle with war raging around her. Just then, she saw herself, emaciated and battle worn, rush out of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. One hand clutched the twisted remains of the Hufflepuff Cup, and the other clenched tightly around the hand of an equally battered Ron Weasley. She was shocked by how young they looked despite their worn appearances. Hermione remembered the rush of emotions she had felt ten years ago – she had thought she was in love in that moment. In love with Ron Weasley.

Hermione shook her head. She had been in love then, but not with Ron. Hermione had only really loved one man her entire life, and despite the men she tried to replace him with, she had only had fleeting moments of love with anyone else. It never lasted much longer than a moment.

She remembered how, mere minutes from now, she would kiss Ron for the first time. She had put her entire being into that kiss, but immediately, she was imagining another man's lips. She had tried to love Ron. It would've been a much simpler solution compared to the alternative.

Past Ron and Hermione had only just gotten their bearings when a giant spider thrashed down the hallway flattening everything in its path, regardless of who was on what side. Ron pushed himself and Hermione out of the way, and losing her footing, Hermione reached for the nearest sconce. The sconce fell like a lever, and both Ron and Hermione tumbled through the opening that had appeared in the stone wall. Immediately, the wall shut behind them, but future Hermione merely walked through the wall, as though it were a mist, and continued to follow the projections of her memory.

"That was close," Ron smiled as he grabbed hold of Hermione before she went tumbling down the stairwell.

Past Hermione smiled back, "I guess our only way back up is down."

The two made their way down the stairwell to find another solid wall at the bottom, but this one was illuminated by two sconces. Past Hermione pulled down on one, and the wall instantly opened up into the main courtyard of the castle.

They had unknowing reentered battle. A dozen wizards and witches were paired off into heated duels. Hermione remembered a group had headed out into the grounds to push back the onslaught of Voldemort's army. A group led by the real reason behind all of this. All the years, research, pain, sleepless nights, and stress. The reason she huddled over notes every night to try and find a way back. This was the moment that haunted her.

Remus Lupin flipped his straggly light brown hair from his eyes as he aggressively blocked a curse Dolohov had sent his way. Sweat poured down his face, clumping his hair in fierce strands, and his eyes glinted with the excitement of battle. Dolohov and him were ferociously engaged in a fiery duel, neither aware of their surroundings except each other.

"_Stupefy!_" Remus snarled as he shot the spell at his opponent.

Dolohov swiftly blocked and returned in the same motion. Purple flames shot from Dolohov's wand, and blinking back tears, Hermione watched as Remus was knocked to the ground. She heard her past self shriek in terror, and Ron held onto her tightly to prevent her from running to Remus.

Flitwick, who was battling Avery only a short distance away, turned at the sound and saw Remus spread across the battered earth. With unbridled anger and swift execution, Flitwick finished Avery in an instance. The bright flash of green light showed the twisted emotion in the small man's face. Before Avery's body could hit the ground, he was headed after Dolohov who turned on the spot and disappeared just in time to avoid Flitwick's curse.

Rushing to Remus, Flitwick waved over his shoulder to Ron and yelled, "Take her away! I'll tend to Remus!"

Past Hermione still fought back against Ron's grip, but she resigned once Flitwick was kneeling beside Remus. Twenty-eight-year-old Hermione hung back as her eighteen-year-old self was dragged off by Ron back into the Great Hall on their way to the Room of Requirement. Hermione choked back tears as she watched the back of Flitwick's head shake back and forth. Around her the grounds began to shrink, the castle fade away, and her last image before she was thrown out of the pensieve was Remus's form splayed out across the grass.


End file.
